Homework

“Tell us in about 300 words why you want to write, what you hope to gain from this course and your ambitions for the future.”

That’s part one of my writing assignment. Introspective homework. To tell the truth, I’m not sure why I want to write‚Äì¬†I just do. (Of course, looking at the responses and email to my last post, perhaps I should reconsider the writing thing in favour of something with less attitude… * grin *)

But seriously, nailing down why I want to write is the most difficult part of the three part first assignment. Is it too general to say that I love the English language and that I desire to become better at utilising it? Is it too predictable to want to earn a few pounds by selling my work here and there? Well, whatever the reasons I come up with, or rather- uncover, I think I’ll post it when I figure it out. This first part of the assignment isn’t going to be looked at for style or construction, it’s just an intro to my tutors. All the same, I’ll give it the attention I would give anything I write, which is to proof read it a couple of times to insure it communicates (silently and out loud) what I need to say both in pace and vocabulary. Sometimes, I even get it right. 😉

Part two of the assignment goes like this: “Visit a local market, fair, place of historical interest or sporting event (even a football match). In fact, anywhere that interests you and might interest your reader. Make notes of what you observe about you. Write up a piece of between 300 – 500 words from your notes describing the event. (You should try to make your tutor feel the atmosphere of excitement of the place. Use your imagination and descriptive powers to the full to produce an interesting piece of writing.)”

This segment of the homework will be significantly easier than the contemplative bit that precedes it. Part three is merely an in-depth questionnaire. It’s done already and took an hour to do, but was easy enough.

Now, to tackle part one… how do I flesh out “I need to.” into 300 words?

🙂 Not a bad method! I did do something similar by outlining some points loosely on paper before committing to an angle in the text editor.

I hit the target word count with relative ease, thanks to all the writing I do online plus some of the count specific exercises I’ve done on my own. It did require two takes, as my first attempt was too much about me and my other creative endeavours rather than focusing on why I’m writing. Neil provided an honest slap for the first essay and it was exactly what I needed to produce the final piece.